Putting the right Clienteling App in the hands of the Store Associate is the key to driving sales

One way or another, once it had been invented, the telephone would have caught on. However, many of the things that we consider indispensable, now that we know how useful they are, were not immediately recognised for their potential value when they first appeared, and the telephone is no exception. It was the news of the vital role that the telephone played, in 1878, in helping to round up doctors and bring them to the scene of a massive train accident in Tariffville, Connecticut, which proved the concept of this new technology to a pre-telephone society, that had managed perfectly well thus far with the telegram being the most advanced communication tool available.

But despite having proved its worth, and being an incredibly powerful tool that has subsequently changed the world, from its earliest days the telephone has had its weaknesses. Crossed lines, eavesdroppers, abusive callers, and most recently robocalls – a problem so bad that, as The Washington Post reports on a survey by Hiya, many people are “simply choosing not to answer the phone altogether”.

In the light of this understanding of the telephone, which, despite its weaknesses, very few adults in the world would dream of being without in one form or another, this blog post is going to look at the trouble you could run into if you put a Clienteling app in the hands of a store associate. Just to be clear, we highly recommend putting a Clienteling app in the hands of all of your store associates, but we want to educate you about the potential dangers, so you are prepared to deal with them and are better able to make the most of this exciting new technology.

Clienteling and the store associate – the need to embrace change

First and foremost, changing the culture of any business takes a lot of communication and more time than most of us would like it to. That’s why relying too heavily on static company-wide communications to introduce any change to a workplace, especially new ways of working, is likely to result in poor absorption of the information and poor adoption of the new methodology. When new tools and approaches are introduced to a workplace, to embed those things in its company culture, a business needs to provide team briefings, training, feedback loops and support. Otherwise, even simple comprehension of what the new change is and what it is for will likely be too low for it to take hold and be effective.

But even more important is the fact that people vary in how well they adapt to change. Some people lap up change and some are very resistant to it so for this reason, any change in company practice needs to find someone who will champion the change to those who greet it with wariness or even hostility. Someone in the company who not only shows enthusiasm for the brave new world but who is understood to be available for support in making sense of the what, where, when, why and how of it.

In other words, simply presenting store associates with a new Clienteling app, without providing sufficient support and encouragement along with it, will probably result in worse sales performances, not better ones. For example, if a store associate is not convinced that the new app will make it easier to do or perform well in their job, they will likely either resent using it or refuse to – both of which will impact negatively on the customer experience that the app is intended to improve.

Introducing and embedding KIT into your workforce

Picture a customer greeted by a store associate who is not enthusiastic about the new Clienteling app, so has not learned of the many useful functions it has. The store associate may not even know that the app enables them to search the stock of a product in another store and complete a sale there and then. It could take the store associate so long to figure out how to accomplish this task with that the wholly unimpressed customer runs out of patience and leaves without making the purchase they would have made if the app designed to enhance customer service had been slick and effective.

Conversely, imagine a store associate who loves the new Clienteling app so much that, in their excitement over what it can do, they fail to listen to guidance on how to use the direct communication features of the app, resulting in doing more harm than good.

One of the most useful applications of a Clienteling app is to personalise the shopping experience for customers, which is of huge value in bricks and mortar retail, where competing with the convenience of online shopping means offering the added value that you can’t find online. Furthermore, one of the best ways of personalising the shopping experience for a customer is to communicate directly with them, via a Clienteling app, with news of a new product or discount that has just been announced. However, if all the messages a store associate ever sends a customer are about products and offers, or if a store associate is not dynamically responsive to the communications they receive from a customer, then those store associates are not providing a valuable, personalised shopping experience, they are subjecting that customer to spam. And instead of those store associates building stronger brand loyalty using the Clienteling app, they will be weakening it.

Potential problems for a brand can also occur even if ten store associates are doing nothing particularly bad in the way they use the direct communication function of a Clienteling app if there has been an insufficient setting of a standard to follow. The result will be sub-optimal brand consistency.

Of course, any useful tool can be mishandled. In the wrong or the uneducated hands, a simple hammer could be used destructively. In the right hands, attached to a person who knows how to hit the nail and not their thumb, the hammer can be used to build palaces. Similarly, with the right support, Clienteling apps like KIT can be incredibly helpful as a tool for both Clienteling and assisted selling. While designed to be very easy to use, KIT is multifaceted and dynamic – new information about products, stock and customers can be added all the time, so it helps all store associates who have been given a tablet with KIT installed on it, if they receive excellent support in practising with and making the most of it.

To help set you off on the right foot with KIT, we recommend inviting the most technologically friendly or innovation-oriented of your store associates to join you for a demonstration of the app with our team. That way your store associates can help you to create a buzz to introduce KIT to your retail business. Demonstrations of KIT can be arranged by contacting the helpful KIT team on +44 203 691 2936. You can also email info@instore.technology with any questions or to request more information, or if you prefer you can also complete the short form on our Contact page.